To the authorities of Karachi,if you or your child stood on this this morning what would you do?? Now I want you to treat the people of Karachi exactly like your family & do the right thing and issue a Public Service Warning across all media now until we know the beach is safe! pic.twitter.com/4AIVlaMD4x

After the tweets were posted, Murtaza Wahab, the Sindh Chief Minister's adviser on environment, at first characterized her tweet as "negative." But any initial tensions soon eased: "I visited the beach to oversee the clean-up, and I also thanked Shaniera for pointing this out," he told NPR. "It's true that medical waste was being seen. There were a couple of dozen syringes and seven to eight vials."

Visited Clifton beach earlier today to oversee the cleanup of the beach with the assistance of Secretary Environment, DC South & Cantonment Board. The area is 80% clear now. Thank u ⁦⁦@iamShaniera⁩ for highlighting the issue & CBC staff for cleaning it up pic.twitter.com/tb2qU2Ifdm

But he does think Akram went too far in describing the problem: "Saying that medical waste was spread over kilometers was incorrect. It was at one portion of the beach, not the entire beach. Saying that medical waste was spread over kilometers could create panic among people."

On September 3, the Sindh Police, the law enforcement agency in Karachi, reported that it "cordoned off the affected area." And on September 5 the government appointed a commissioner to investigate, calling for a report within seven days.

Sindh Govt has appointed Salahuddin Ahmed, Deputy Commissioner South to investigate about the illegal disposal of medical waste found at Clifton Beach, Karachi & submit a report within 7 days pic.twitter.com/ordC9StMLR

Dr. Jehanzeb Mughal, a surgeon who runs a clinic in Karachi, has theories about what might have happened – and to him it wasn't a matter of quantity but rather figuring out the back story: "The question is, how did it get there?"

His theory is that "someone has all the plastic stuff in his clinical waste ready to be shipped off to some buyer, who will then make a plastic product out of it." Along the way, he suggests, "there wasn't a proper disposal system" for hazardous waste, "so it got picked up and obviously got dumped into the sea and then ended up on the shore" when the tide came in.

Akram, who says she's walked that beach every day for four years and never seen syringes before, is happy with the outcome. She told NPR: "Karachi has experienced a major wake-up call this week. The people of Karachi have had enough, and that is why the reaction was so good – a full investigation into dumping and disposal of medical waste is underway."

Her fans on Twitter agree:

We need Shaniera Akram to start visiting the other areas of Karachi as well and start tweeting. Seems to be the only thing that makes authorities act. https://t.co/7WH7NCTUxM